1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an imaging apparatus which includes light shielding plates that block light incident on a lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
A dome type camera is used as, for example, a surveillance camera. In a dome type camera, a camera lens is covered by a dome cover and the dome cover protects the camera lens (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2012-103452).
As a surveillance camera, a camera which is provided with a pair of barriers for opening and closing of a front surface of the camera is known. The pair of barriers are provided for the purpose of allowing a person to clearly be aware that the camera is in a non-imaging state and improving a privacy-oriented function or the purpose of protecting an imaging lens.
In a configuration described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2012-103452, to move the pair of barriers (hereinafter, referred to as “light shielding plates”) in different directions, it is generally necessary to provide multiple staged gears and a direction reversing gear and to drive (open and close) each light shielding plate by transmitting a torque of a motor to each light shielding plate via the plurality of gears. Therefore, the imaging apparatus needs to include a complicated mechanism such as a direction reversing mechanism, and components of the mechanism (gear unit or the like) are concentrated on one side of the vicinity of the lens, which results in a complicated structure.
The present invention has been proposed in such a circumstance, and an object thereof is to provide an imaging apparatus which has a simple configuration and is capable of an opening and closing operation in which a pair of light shielding plates are moved in different directions.